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Pilgway releases 3D-Coat 4.7

Pilgway has released 3D-Coat 4.7, a big update to its voxel sculpting, retopo and 3D painting app, updating its PBR shading and map baking to improve workflow with game engines, and adding new low-poly retopo tools.

New ‘completely remade’ PBR shading system
The headline change is the new PBR shader, which replaces the PBR shading introduced in version 4.5.

The new shader supports the GGX microfacet surface shading model used in most modern game engines and offline renderers.

In addition, “almost all” of 3D-Coat’s voxel shaders are now PBR-compatible, offering a “rich set of parameters including different textures, SSS, Gloss, Metalness, Cavity and Bulge settings”.

Bar pseudo-subsurface scattering, all of the PBR shader effects are baked exactly before a model is painted.

However, the fact that the PBR shading system has been completely rewritten means that scenes created in older versions of the software will need reworking. You can find more details in the release notes.

New baking options and low-poly retopology tools
Other new features include support for “multiple map baking, including AO and SSS”.

There is also a new export constructor, which enables users to pack multiple exported maps into a single texture to match the default formats used by game engines or offline renderers.

In addition, anti-aliased painting has been introduced throughout 3D-Coat’s toolset, including when vertex painting or painting textures in Ptex format.

There are also a range of new geometry primitives – screws, spirals and so on – and some interesting-looking new retopology tools for low-poly geometry, which you can see from 01:45 in the video above.

Pricing and availability
3D-Coat 4.7 is available for Windows Vista and above, Linux and Mac OS X 10.7 and above.

A commercial node-locked licence has an MSRP of $379 and a floating licence an MSRP of $568, although Pilgway is currently offering both at a discount. The update is free to registered users.